Warhead (episode)
A sentient alien missile takes over the Doctor's program and tries to carry out its mission of mass destruction. Summary Upon receiving a distress signal during the night shift on ''Voyager'', Harry Kim alters course to investigate. Commander Chakotay is informed of the distress signal, and places Harry in charge of the away team. The away team beams down to the surface to look around, and finds the source of the distress signal, apparently a metallic object containing a sophisticated energy source, bio-neural circuitry and an artificial intelligence. The object reactivates and proceeds to communicate with the Doctor, noting that many of its internal memory cores are damaged and cannot be accessed without reconstruction. The Doctor establishes a rapport with the intelligence and makes an appeal to Harry to try to help the intelligence regain its lost memory fragments. After a bit of debate, and with the Doctor's insistence, the device is beamed aboard Voyager to salvage the device's intelligence. After more intense scanning of the device, and another discovery on the planet's surface of a similar device causing an explosion, it is determined that the device is a warhead of mass destruction. There is a debate as to what should be done with the device, to still continue to salvage the intelligence, or to simply destroy the weapon. It is decided to try to salvage the intelligence. The crew decides to build a new holomatrix for the intelligence and begins a procedure to transfer the artificial intelligence into it. However, during the procedure, the device's auto-defense programming kicks in and the device arms itself. Torres makes an attempt, under Captain Janeway's orders, to disable the device by sending an EM pulse to shut it down. The device interprets this as an act of hostility, and unknown to Torres and the rest of the crew present during the procedure, the device's intelligence takes over the EMH Doctor's holomatrix during the interlink operation. The Doctor's holomatrix is now in control by the warhead. The warhead intelligence then begins to take steps to protect itself from the crew, and makes its intentions known. It was a dormant warhead sent on a mission to destroy a military base, and it has now resumed that mission. The warhead intelligence threatens Voyager with destruction if the Captain doesn't comply with transporting the warhead to its destination. The warhead intelligence demands that Voyager alter course, taking them to its intended target, a military installation on Salina Prime, approximately 2.5 light years away from their current position. The warhead intelligence then insists that Kim and Torres attempt to reconstruct some memory fragments just before its crash landing. Some of the memory fragments also reveal the accidental launch of the device, along with 33 other similar warheads. During the reconstruction, they determine that the warhead was sent a command by its creators, the Druoda, to disengage. Apparently their war ended about 3 years prior, and the command to terminate was received. The warhead intelligence doubts the reconstructed memory, citing possible meddling by Kim and Torres. Harry retorts that the algorithm used to encode the command would be extremely difficult to tamper with, seeding the warhead intelligence with some doubt. Meanwhile, the crew attempts to devise a plan to infuse the warhead's bio-neural circuitry with Seven's borg nanoprobes to disable the warhead. The attempt was unsuccessful, and Seven's direct contact with a defensive measure for the bio-neural circuitry on the warhead injures her. Next, the 32 other functioning warheads that were also accidentally launched contact the remaining warhead aboard Voyager. The warhead intelligence, with Harry's help in reasoning with it, deduces that the command to rescind the mission is in fact legitimate, and attempts to corroborate with the other warheads. Since all the warheads have reached a two light year target threshold, at which point the mission cannot be canceled, they ignore the command sent by the warhead on Voyager. The warhead intelligence then realizes what must be done. Harry sadly says "I'm sorry," but the AI simply states that it now has a new mission to protect its people. At the other warheads' request, the warhead aboard Voyager is transported alongside the fleet and a tractor beam carries the warhead into warp alongside the others to complete their mission. The warhead from Voyager self-destructs. Voyager detects a series of antimatter explosions, destroying all of the wayward warheads, eliminating the threat. Background Information *The AI of the warhead has no information regarding its target, only a Planet/Grid/Vector. We never get to find out who the creators of the warhead were targeting, if indeed the target was a preprogramed target, and not just a computer artifact generated by the same accident that launched the warheads. Links and References Co-Stars *McKenzie Westmore as Ensign Jenkins *Steve Dennis as Onquanii (credited as "Alien") *David Keith Anderson as Ashmore (uncredited) *Unknown actor as Timothy Lang References 2342; amnesia; artificial intelligence; asparagus; bio-neural circuitry; Mouton Rothschild; class 11 intelligence factor; dermal regenerator; dilithium; Druoda; duotronic algorithm; electromagnetic pulse; ion storm; junior staff; monster movie marathon; nanoprobe; neural shock; night shift; paratrinic shielding; plasma manifold; pork rind; power node; replicator ration; rose; Salina Prime; Series 5 long-range tactical armor unit; Strategic Command Matrix; subspace mine; Terellian pheasant; transkinetic energy; weapon of mass destruction |next= }} Category:VOY episodes de:Geheimnisvolle Intelligenz fr:Warhead nl:Warhead